AEIs Critical Threats Africa File posted on 23 October 2026 an update titled "Ethiopia War Security Review."
This update covers the period 20-23 October and discusses the fighting in Tigray and Benishangul-Gumuz Regions and recent regional and international engagement.
AEIs Critical Threats Africa File published on 20 October 2026 an update titled "Ethiopia War Security Review."
This update covers the fighting in Ethiopia from 16-20 October. Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) continue their battle with Tigray rebels in Tigray Region. Ethiopian rebel forces in Oromia and Benishangul-Gumuz Regions carried out their first significant attacks since the recent outbreak of fighting in Tigray Region. The United States and Russia have separately proposed mediation.
The Conversation published on 24 September 2026 a commentary titled "Maps Can Be Misleading--On Purpose--and Their Story Becomes History. The Case of Ethiopia" by Daniel Waktola.
The author explains how maps on Ethiopian social media and in school textbooks inflated boundaries and engaged in outright disinformation, a practice known as maptivism. These inaccurate maps then become evidence about who belongs where, who governs where, and who owns what.
The Middle East Eye published on 19 August 2026 an article titled "UAE-backed Chinese Company Acquires Stake in Ethiopian Gold Mine Near Sudan War Zone" by Zecharias Zelalem and Oscar Rickett.
Last week, Canadian mining company Allied Gold sold a 9.2 percent stake to China's Zijin Gold International. This gives Zijin partial ownership of mines in Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, and near Kurmuk in Ethiopia. The Kurmuk mine is in Ethiopia's Benishangul-Gumuz region, which hosts at least one base used by Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The UAE supports the RSF and is the main buyer of gold coming from both Sudan and Ethiopia.
The UAE's sovereign wealth fund has a major share in the parent company of Zijin Gold International and in Canada's Allied Gold. The Ethiopian gold mine puts Chinese, Canadian, and UAE interests close to the civil war between the RSF and the Sudan Armed Forces in Sudan's Blue Nile State and raises further questions about the UAE's role in the conflict.
Foreign Affairs published on 15 November 2023 an article titled "Can Justice Bring Peace to Ethiopia: How to Heal Divisions After Decades of War" by Patrick Vinck, Tadesse Simie Metekia, Geoff Dancy, Kathryn Sikkink, and Phuong N. Pham.
The authors conducted a nationwide survey of more than 6,600 randomly selected Ethiopian adults in June and July 2023. They found that more than 90 percent of Ethiopians said it would be unacceptable to move forward without truth seeking, trials, or reparations. They differed sharply, however, on what timeframe to focus on and who should lead the effort. There were marked regional differences in Ethiopians' preferences for types of trials.
Ventures posted on 15 February 2023 a commentary titled "A Nobel Peace Prize and Spates of Conflicts: How Ethiopia's Conflicts Reimage Abiy Ahmed's Regime" by Ishioma Imokhai-Bello.
The author tracks Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's leadership from a promising beginning to a phase filled with conflict.
Aljazeera published on 17 May 2022 an article titled "Ethiopia to Get $300m World Bank Grant for Reconstruction."
The World Bank is providing Ethiopia a $300 million grant to rebuild the health, education, and water supply sectors, and aid survivors of gender based violence in Tigray, Amhara, Afar, Oromia, and Benishangul-Gumuz regions.
The International Crisis Group (ICG) published on 26 October 2021 a briefing titled "Ethiopia's Civil War: Cutting a Deal to Stop the Bloodshed."
The ICG predicts that Ethiopia's civil war is likely to worsen. It urges outside powers to back the African Union's new envoy's efforts to move instead toward a ceasefire.
Ethiopia Insight published on 21 September 2021 an analysis titled "EIEP: Lust for Power Trumped Reformist Zeal in Ethiopia's Election."
This is a region by region analysis of the 21 June elections in Ethiopia where the Prosperity Party won 410 of the 425 contested seats in parliament and almost 98 percent of the contested contests in regional and city council elections. Ethiopia Insight concluded that in spite of all efforts to rebrand, the Prosperity Party used an array of tactics straight out of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front playbook to win.
Ethiopia Insight posted on 18 June 2021 a commentary titled the "The Spiraling Situation in Ethiopia's Benishangul-Gumuz Region" by Tsegaye Birhanu, Linnaeus University in Sweden.
The author argues that people in Benishangul-Gumuz Region, which borders Sudan and is the location of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, are not receiving the humanitarian support they need and the attention they deserve. Ethnic violence is common and over 100,000 people, mainly Amhara and Agaw, have been displaced. Major roads are closed and food shortages are serious.
In a 29 April 2021 letter to US Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa, Jeffrey Feltman, five US senators expressed concern about the increase in ethnic violence in Ethiopia, urged reform before the 5 June parliamentary elections, and called for an independent investigation of human rights abuses throughout the country.
The senior foreign policy advisor for Senator Cardin asked that I correct my interpretation of a sentence in the letter I described as a call for postponement of Ethiopia's 5 June election. He points out that the senators were NOT calling for the elections to be postponed. They were calling for electoral reforms to be done in order to build public confidence in the elections - which should be held as scheduled, but not in a manner that would exacerbate tensions and lead to violence.
My apology for misinterpreting that part of the letter.
African Arguments published on 24 March 2021 a commentary titled "Ethiopia: The Wider Battle of Which the Tigray War Is Just a Part" by Etana H. Dinka, James Madison University.
The author argues that the war in Tigray is part of a broader political struggle in Ethiopia for the future direction of the country.
Foreign Policy posted on 1 April 2021 a commentary titled "Ethiopia Needs a Constitutional Convention" by Adem K. Abebe, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance in the Netherlands.
The author argues that Ethiopia is in crisis and the way out of its many problems is a constitutional convention and process-oriented national dialogue.
allAfrica.com posted on 26 February 2021 a guest column titled "Ethiopia's Crisis Needs Urgent Solution - Five Former U.S. Ambassadors Raise Alarm."
David Shinn, Tibor Nagy, Aurelia Brazeal, Vicki Huddleston, and Patricia Haslach, who served as U.S. chief of mission in Ethiopia during the period 1996 to 2016, propose a series of steps that need to be taken in order to bring Ethiopia's current crisis to an end.
The New York Times published on 13 January 2021 an article titled "Dozens Die in Ethnic Massacre in Troubled Ethiopia Region" by Simon Marks and Declan Walsh.
At least 80 ethnic minorities were killed on 12 January in Ethiopia's western Benishangul-Gumuz Region. While conflict continues in Tigray Region, it is important to understand that ethnic issues are challenging other parts of Ethiopia.
Ethiopia Insight posted on 29 December 2020 a commentary titled "The Murky Politics behind the Metekel Massacres" by Tsegaye Birhanu, from Benishangul-Gumuz Region and now a student at Linnaeus University in Sweden.
On 23 December 2020, an armed Gumuz group slaughtered 207 persons based on their light skin color in Ethiopia's Benishangul-Gumuz region bordering Sudan. The commentary discusses the complex reasons behind the ethnic attacks.
